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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoPhoto provided by Lee Cole, ASSISTANT PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICERColumbus Division of Fire Lieutenant Stu Tudor remains in critical condition after being struck by lightning while attending a charity event at Crew Stadium on Saturday. The firefighter was struck by lightning at the Crew had just played in a charity game to raise money for injured police officers and firefighters.

He had just finished, of all things, a charity soccer game to raise money for fallen or injured
police officers and firefighters.

Stu Tudor, a 54-year-old Columbus fire lieutenant with more than two decades in the division,
headed into the parking lot at Crew Stadium on Saturday night. Some think he was getting ready to
leave. He paused at a portable toilet, and that’s where time, nature and misfortune collided in the
most unthinkable of ways.

Firefighters at the stadium heard the call: Lightning strike. Cardiac arrest. Within 15 minutes,
Columbus Fire Fighters Union President Jack Reall said, they learned the victim was one of their
own.

Tudor remained in critical condition yesterday in Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
Reall said Tudor was in a medically induced coma and that the extent of his injuries would be
clearer as his body temperature, kept low for 72 hours, was increased. Tudor’s right leg, where the
lightning is believed to have exited, was being treated for swelling, Reall said.

“The fact that he’s still alive is encouraging,” given the severity of that initial call, he
said. “We’re trying to make sure that we take care of him the best we can. ... Hopefully, we can
get him back on the road to recovery.”

Reall said firefighters are standing watch at the hospital around the clock, hoping for the best
in the crucial next 36 hours.

Tudor, who joined the Division of Fire in August 1991, had gone to the soccer stadium on
Saturday afternoon for a charity soccer game benefiting Get Behind the Badge, an organization
established in 2001 after the shooting death of Whitehall Police Officer Terry McDowell. The group
offers financial assistance to the families of police officers and firefighters killed or
critically wounded.

Tudor had updated his Facebook page during the day. One photo showed him in front of a soccer
net, the ball tucked under one arm. “New USA world cup goalie,” he wrote.

Inside the stadium yesterday, fans and the team paid tribute to the injured man. Crew coach
Gregg Berhalter wore a red ribbon on his shirt. The public-address announcer read a statement from
the Crew wishing Tudor a speedy recovery. Fans applauded. Some hoisted signs.

One was a bright yellow banner, scribbled with well-wishes from fans and players.